Chapter 21

Fran woke up in the Sanctuary. “Great!” She swore. She opened her eyes and stared directly into Micah's ruby depths. She instantly forgot how irritated she was.

“Good morning my lady, How do you feel?” He was smiling.

“How long was I sleeping?” She asked rubbing her eyes prettily.

“Well, technically speaking you are still sleeping in your room in Paul's mansion. You have been sleeping non-stop for two days!.No more...what was that?

“Pepsi.” She furnished.

“Yes. No more Pepsi for you. It cannot be healthy.” Micah stated.

She didn't answer right away. She didn't think Pepsi was healthy for anyone. She drank it because it tasted good not because it was good for her. His thinking was odd to her. It was one of the things she loved about him. It was kinda of sweet that he thought he could tell her what to do.

“You really are too beautiful for words, you know.” She cood lazily perusing all of him and immensely enjoying the view.

“Please my lady,as much as I appreciate your opinion of me... a woman does not fawn over a man's beauty...it is...unseemly.” Micah was blushing causing his already pink cheeks to turn a beautiful deep rose color.

“Get used to it.” Fran said sweetly. “It might be centuries before I get over how achingly stunning you are.”

“Yes, well, we'll see about that.” Micah truly didn't know how to respond to Fran. And really to think of it, He hadn't known how to respond to her the second he met her. She never did anything like she was supposed to.

“So what am I doing here?” She asked him.

“I think we are ready to see if you can become Nephilium. We will not become right now. I must make that clear. Neither one of us is ready for that. But you can regain the rights to what you really are.”

The way Micah said “Become” sent shivers from the roots of Fran's hair to the tips of her toes. This thing sounded like it was better than sex. She looked at him her eyes smoldering.

“Now, my lady, I can tell what you are thinking.” He strangled out feeling her palpable desire wash over him in waves and trying desperately to control his own emotions. “We. Are. Not. Ready. And yes you are correct in your assumption from all the information that I can gather. There are more tomes written to the wonders of “Become” than in all Nephilium literature put together....with the exception of the literature written about the wonders of the “Divine One” of course. You will behave yourself. Do you hear me? Trust me. Neither you or I are ready for that.”

“I'm more than ready.” Fran thought remembering his rippling abs and glorious shoulders and arms.

“I promise to be good.” She said out loud to Micah. He unonsciously backed away a little. He didn't trust her with her looking at him like that.

Fran thought about what he was saying to her. “I don't know if I am ready to change to blue, green, red, yellow....”

“You will only retain your true color here Fran. It is not....practical for humans to see us as we really are.”

Fran liked the fact that Micah did not refer to himself as a vampire anymore. She still had little tolerance for them although there were some she would die to protect.

“Why do I want to do this?” She questioned coyly moving close enough to smell the skin along his neck. “Other than me being able to take advantage of your delicious body?”

“God's breath! I wish you would cease this....!”

And then she kissed him. Micah gave in. What was he going to do when she insisted on seducing him at every turn? She took tiny nips all the way up his throat and then moved to his lips. Each time she bit him tingling jolts of electric passion shivered up his spine and fluttered across every inch of his skin. His body unconsciously undulated with every new wave. He closed his eyes and gasped with pleasure at every one of them. When she licked his bottom lip with her tongue, he'd had enough. He covered her mouth with his and breathed her in. He let his tongue dart in and out of her mouth touching hers playing hide and seek with it. She cut her tongue on his teeth and he tasted blood. Desire turned into ravenous passion. He growled into her mouth and deepened the kiss. Only centuries of self control allowed him to catch himself. He realized his heartbeat had synchonized with hers and his whole body pounded with its primal rhythm. He needed her sweet blood pulsating over his tongue and coursing its hot velvety necter down his throat. He pushed her away panting like he was a human who had run 100 miles. Every fiber of his being was alive and sparking with life.

“I swear...one..day...you....will....kill...me.....By all that’s holy!“ He rolled over away from her.

“I'm sorry.” She said softly

Micah turned on his back and laughed heartily licking her blood deliciously from his lips. “You give me more passion in five minutes than I have felt in my entire life and you apologize! Woman I will never understand you!”

“I thought I did something wrong. You are ok?” She asked timidly. Micah was glowing. Red shimmering light was flowing from him in waves.

“My lady I have never, ever, felt this good in my entire life.” About this Micah could not lie. His eyes were sparkling blood red rubies set in thick black lashes.

“Do you wish to change today or did I bring you here to just torture me?” He said trying to maneuver her into the purpose he brought her to the sanctuary in the first place.

“Really Micah, aside from the obvious benefits, why do I want to do this right now?” She asked again.

“Because you can know where Raelyn is at all times.” He said seriously.

“How do I start?” She said sobering up quickly.

“That is what we're here for my lady. You need to take your shirt off first though.”

Fran eyed him suspiciously and then smiled. “Right.” She said arching her eyebrow at him prettily.

“I know what you are thinking Fran especially after what we just did, but I assure you it is hard to sprout wings when there is material impeding their growth. It will just make things easier if you are free to move your back as you like.

“Ok.” She said. “Turn around.”

“Turn...!” He did what she said. He hadn't forgotten her reaction to Dimitri's naked form.

“You can turn back around now.” She told him when her back was exposed and she had covered her front with her shirt.

Micah smiled. In a way her modesty was nice in an age where most of the women her age wouldn't care. She did not see her body as an instrument to be treated casually.

“Ok sweetling, just relax and I will guide you to that part of yourself that is Nephilium.”

Fran relaxed trusting him completely. Micah sat in front of her and gently put his hands on hers. She felt his energy combining with hers, but not in the way she wanted him to.

“Not yet Fran.” He warned “Let's just get through this part and we can come back to that which you seek.”

Fran nodded in agreement and passed the jewel studded portal that was calling so strongly to her.

There was another door. A blue door. “This is it.” she heard Micah whisper into her mind. “Walk through this door.” With no reservations Micah saw her walk calmly through the door and it slammed shut behind her. When she did not open the door or unlock it immediately he became worried. So he walked up to it and pulled on the handle and it broke off in his hands. He could hear her screaming inside.

Paul heard Fran screaming first and dashed up the stairs into her room. He tried to shake her out of it thinking it was a bad dream but her eyes were rolled up into her head. She was trapped somewhere. He was terrified of who might be holding her captive.

“Dimitri!” Paul called.

“Yes.” Dimitri immediately answered and then he heard the screams. “I'll go see what is causing this.”

Dimitri appeared in the sanctuary where Micah was holding onto Fran who was laying in his lap face down. She was grabbing the grass with all of her strength and screaming with all of her might.

“What's the matter with her?” Dimitri yelled above the tormented screams.

“She's becoming Nephilium!” Micah explained his eyes riddled with pain and fear. “I didn't know that she would be trying to do it all at one time. From all accounts it should have been gradual, like it was for me when I was growing up. I don't know how to help her!”

Dimitri put his had on Fran's back.

“It's burning hot and blisters are starting to form! Her body is making amends for not changing when it was time. There is nothing we can do but wait for her to finish the transformation.”

“Is there nothing we can do to ease the pain?” Micah was openly weeping. He couldn't bare to see her suffer like this.

“NO.” Dimitri told him.

What Dimitri didn't tell Micah was that this should have been done in the world Fran lived in. She didn't have to hide what she was like Micah did. Then they could have given her something for the pain. But this way....there was nothing they could do. You could not anesthetize someone's spirit.

Fran screamed a long painful wailing sound and then passed out from the pain.

“I'll be back” Dimitri told Micah. “She is screaming in her world too. I have to tell the others what is going on.”

“Only Paul.” Micah warned. “I don't know who I can trust even in the house of Valhalla Pride. You are the only one that knows what I am, and I would prefer to keep it that. Paul is the only one I trust at the moment to keep her secret as well.”

“Paul it is.” Dimitri said and then vanished.

“What have I done?” Micah moaned. “What have I done?”

Dimitri made it back to his version of the world where he was able to speak with the others. This would be hard for him to keep from the others, especially Raelyn. She would not understand the reasonings.

Fran had stopped screaming in the other world too. Dimitri told Paul what was happening and told him about Micah's request to keep it a secret. Paul understood. He agreed with Micah. Nephilium were a cryptic race. He knew there were those among the vampir who would pay more for a Nephilium than they would for a Sire if only to keep her as a trophy or a pet. Valhalla pride would be in great danger if anyone found out she was living among them.

“Tell Micah I will keep vigil myself. No one will be allowed through that door.” Said Paul.

“What about Rae and Alex?” Dimitri asked.

“If Fran and Micah want to reveal what they are to others that is their business to tell not ours. ALL will be kept from this room on my explicit order.”

“As you wish my lord. Then I will take leave of you to help Micah where I can?” Dimitri asked.

“Do so my son, and try to hurry this along. I have another appointment to keep.”

Dimitri was gone. Fran started groaning and then she started screaming again. Paul set four guards outside Fran's door. Alex and Raelyn were coming home soon and there would be hell to pay when they found out they were not allowed access to this room.

Micah held Fran. It was all he could do. He swabbed her head with a cool cloth and held her head when she threw up. He didn't even think she was aware of what was happening to her anymore. Micah groaned. Fran's back was popping and rippling trying desperately to produce wings that wouldn't come.

“Its like she is trying to give birth.” Dimitri said watching her bones in her back stretch and then try to readjust their position.

“But the baby will not be born.” Micah said miserably. “I have seen many women suffer this way in childbirth..they died when their energy was spent.”

“And the baby along with them.” Dimitri said looking like he was seeing a vision of past nightmares before him.

Fran regained consciousness. “It hasn't happened yet.” She said weakly.

“No my love it has not.” Micah whispered. “I am so very sorry sweetling. Had I known....”

“We would have done this anyway. I will endure anything.” Fran said gritting her teeth. “I need to hear Raelyn. I need to know where she is.” Her eyes rolled up in her head and she started screaming again.

“But I cannot endure this.” Micah whispered holding her.

Alex was leaving the hospital. A code had come in. A traffic accident. And although the guy didn't look much like Dimitri, he was the same height and age. Alex was there when Raelyn took the dispatch. She wasn't going anywhere. Alex offered to stay but she pushed him out of the door telling him adamantly she didn't need him and to go home and rest. It wasn't often she worked a dayshift anymore, however Davidson and Michael had begged for her assistance today.

As he put his key into the car door, Dimitri whispered into his mind. “Alex I need for you to do me a favor and I need for you not to ask me any questions.”

Alex bit back the obvious “why” question that he was begging to ask.

“Its Fran. She may die if I don't help her and by Paul's direct order no one can know about this except me.”

“You need to use my body.” Alex said matter of factly.

“Yes.”

“It is yours.” Alex said as he threw his things into the Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder he drove to work and leaned against the car.

“Thank you.” Dimitri whispered.

When the little sports car drove up to the mansion, it was Alex's body but Dimitri doing the driving. He sped up stairs to Fran's room mentally telling Paul what he had done and asking him to warn the guards. They let him in immediately.

Fran was thrashing on the bed and it was taking all of Paul's considerable strength to hold her down. Dimitri asked Alex what they should do about her body without divulging everything that was happening. Dimitri ordered supplies and they were delivered up to the room immediately. He let Alex have enough control of the body to start the IVs.

“She needs to remain hydrated.” Alex said to Paul. “Remember that.” And he obediently left.

Author's Note

*This is my first time writing for others to read, so please feel free to comment and/or critique. All feedback welcomed!*